Southern State AIDS and STD Directors Work Group Releases Call to Action

HIV/AIDS is "drastically and quickly" spreading across the southern United
States, an area that is already is dealing with a "dire shortage" of
resources to address the disease, according to a report released yesterday,
the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (Seabrook, Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, 4/25). The Southern State AIDS and STD Directors
Work Group yesterday released the final version of the Southern States
Manifesto, titled "HIV/AIDS and STDs in the South: A Call to Action,"
according to a Southern AIDS Coalition release (SAC release, 4/24). The
report was written by state- and community-based HIV/AIDS and STD groups in
the District of Columbia, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas,
Virginia and West Virginia in response to a continued rise in new HIV/AIDS
and sexually transmitted disease cases in the region. The manifesto
outlines barriers to providing and obtaining HIV/AIDS prevention and care
services in southern states, many of which have poor health care
infrastructures, large populations living in relative poverty and large
numbers of uninsured individuals. The manifesto calls on federal, state
and local governments to "recognize the disparate impact of HIV and STDs in
the South" (Foust/Scalo, Southern State AIDS Directors Work Group letter,
4/24). A preliminary version of the report was released in December 2002
at the Southern HIV/AIDS Conference, which addressed the lack of access to
services, increased rates of sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS stigma
and chronic shortages of drugs in treatment programs experienced by AIDS
and STD organizations in the South. According to CDC figures cited in the
manifesto, more than 130,000 people in the South have AIDS, compared to
about 100,000 in the Northeast, 36,000 in the Midwest and 62,000 in the
West. In addition, despite higher numbers of AIDS cases, the region is
behind other areas of the nation in federal funding for HIV/AIDS programs
(Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 12/5/2002). Dr. Gene Copello, co-chair of
the Southern AIDS Coalition, a recently formed advocacy group comprised of
health officials from 14 states and Washington, D.C., including Southern
AIDS and STD Directors, said, "The AIDS epidemic is out of control in the
South. In essence we're declaring a state of emergency. ... Unless some
crucial steps are taken, the epidemic will get worse. We plan to be very
loud and forceful about this" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 4/25). source:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=17365